Getting smart about recycling tyres with Tyrewise
Manawatū District Council has partnered with Tyrewise, New Zealand’s first regulated stewardship scheme to dispose of tyres.
Beginning September 1, it is now free for up to five tyres to be dropped off at the Manawatū Resource Recovery Centre thanks to the Manawatū District Council’s partnership with Tyrewise.
Tyres are a major contributor to the Manawatū’s illegal dumping issues and until now there has been a charge per tyre to when brought to the Manawatū Resource Recovery Centre. This charge contributed to the transportation and disposal of the tyres.
“In the 2023/2024 financial year, 1909 tyres were received at the Manawatū Resource Recovery Centre”, Hamish Waugh, Infrastructure General Manager explains. “That’s 21 tonnes of tyres or approximately 477 vehicles if all four tyres were replaced!”
Tyrewise is operated by Auto Stewardship NZ and monitored by Ministry for the Environment. There is no cost to MDC to be a public collection point for Tyrewise and it is hoped by removing the barrier of cost to the public for disposal, the number of incidents of illegal dumping of tyres will diminish.
Once received by MDC, Tyrewise arranges for the pickup and transportation of the tyres to be shredded and repurposed into an intermediary product for the domestic market. This could be in form of playground matting, sports grounds, arena dressing and cement production (both as fuel and ingredient).
Currently, included in the partnership is air-filled and solid tyres from motorised vehicles including cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, trailers and off-road vehicles.
It’s one more way the Manawatū District can play it’s part in the circular economy of goods.